It was just one of thousands of photographs that Gino Pasi processes in his job as archivist and collections manager at Wright State University’s Special Collections and Archives in the Dunbar Library. But this photograph — that of a beautiful young woman taken in the 1940s — was special.

And for Pasi — a filmmaker whose creative juices are always flowing — it was a movie. So he turned it into one.

Pasi has written, directed and produced “The Archivist,” a short film about a young curator whose obsession with a photo leads him to the woman who was photographed and changes both of their lives in the process.

Pasi started the moviemaking process last summer. After writing the script, he had to line up a film crew. With a modest budget of $3,000, the film was shot in four days in Dayton and Cincinnati.

The plot involves a young archivist who, after finding the woman’s photo, tracks her down at an art gallery in New York City. She is a widow in her late 60s lamenting the passing of her youth. He is a historian who thinks about the past more than the present or future. The two have dinner together.

“They each love the past and are kind of stuck in the past,” Pasi said. “Over the course of this evening, they take a step forward and engage in the present.”

An image from Special Collections and Archives inspired Wright State archivist Gino Pasi to make a movie. (Photo by Will Jones)

Some of the scenes were shot in Wright State’s Dunbar Library and other campus locations. There are also scenes at the Dayton Visual Arts Center, the Color of Energy Gallery, Dorothy Lane Market and Salar, a restaurant in Dayton’s Oregon District.

The female lead is played by Columbus actress Josie Merkle. Tyler Henry, a Dayton transplant from Nashville, plays the male lead. Also with parts in the film are Dayton actress Shyra Thomas; Mandy Shannon, Dunbar Library’s reference librarian; and Wright State theatre student Julio Gomez.

It is the second film Pasi has produced, written and directed. The first was one called “An Unusual Likeness.”

Pasi grew up in the small western Pennsylvania town of Brockway, home to a glass factory and surrounded by steel mills. His father was a truck driver, and his mother worked in a bakery.

Pasi remembers getting hooked on movies at a young age.

“My father and I would watch these Biblical epics, like ‘The Robe’ or ‘Barabbas.’ The next day I would be dressing up in a toga and trying to recite monologues from the film,” he said. “Then it became a thing. It was always a part of my makeup.”

Pasi finally worked up enough nerve to go on stage, taking a small part in a play his senior year at Brockway Area High School.

“I think I had seven lines; I botched them,” he said.

After high school, Pasi began doing stand-up comedy in the Pittsburgh area. Then in 1990, the 19-year-old left for New York City and went to an acting conservatory, the American Academy for Dramatic Arts.

He later attended Messiah College in eastern Pennsylvania, getting his bachelor’s degree in history. But he still had the theater bug, so he worked for Kent State University’s professional summer theater and then moved back to New York City, where for the next few years he performed in several plays and touring productions.

But history was beckoning Pasi as a career.

So he got his master’s degree in American studies from Penn State University and landed a job with Pennsylvania’s state historical organization.

Then in 2007, he was hired by Wright State to do oral histories for the Dunbar Library on Cold War aerospace engineers who had worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He later became an archivist/collections manager.

Pasi’s primary duty is to make contact with potential collection donors and evaluate their papers, photos, diaries and other materials for possible inclusion in the library’s Special Collections and Archives.

“I like going to people’s basements or their attics or their businesses and talking with people who may not think what they have is valuable,” he said. “But I often tell them we are interested in this stuff and that it will be historically significant, if not now, 50 years from now.”

One day, Pasi found a package on his desk mailed from a suburb outside of Boston. It was from a man who told him that a nanny who had taken care of his family for years had recently died and left diaries, letters, photos and news clippings from her brother. The brother was Raoul Lufbery, a French-American fighter pilot and flying ace in World War I with 17 combat victories.

“We’ve got a world-class aviation history archive,” said Pasi. “There is not a day that goes by that something fascinating doesn’t cross your desk — something from the Wright brothers to Charles F. Kettering. Every day you’re holding something in your hand that not a lot of people get to see on a regular basis.”

Pasi said working in the archives, which is headed by Dawne Dewey and has more than 700 collections of historical documents and artifacts, inspired him to make the movie.

“There are thousands of stories in these collections,” he said. “You can read diaries, and the ideas begin to marinate, start clicking. It’s just a very inspiring place creatively to work.”

Pasi is hoping to premiere “The Archivist” in Dayton in mid-September and then submit it to film festivals. He acknowledges that the film will not appeal to everyone.

“There is no zombie apocalypse, there is no car chase, there is no shootout,” he said. “It’s a small, short film about two people who find it hard to move on with their lives. Though not for everyone, I think its appeal will be broad because I think there are issues that are collective to all of us.”

John F. Donnelly, professor of family medicine in the Boonshoft School of Medicine.

The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP) announced that John F. Donnelly, M.D., of the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, is the recipient of its 2015 Family Medicine Educator of the Year Award.

Donnelly, professor of family medicine in the Boonshoft School of Medicine, has been practicing medicine for 27 years. Following residency and an early career in Texas, Donnelly came to the Boonshoft School of Medicine in 1997.

“My teaching philosophy is to motivate, challenge and encourage learners to give their best effort, thereby empowering them to provide their patients with health care of the highest quality,” Donnelly said. “I strive to foster in learners a love of patients, the joy of medicine, a zest for professional development and lifelong learning.”

Therese M. Zink, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine, describes Donnelly as a medical student magnet. He is dedicated to each and every one of his 400-plus medical students. He is said to know each student’s first and last name.

The class of 2015 selected Donnelly to be its graduation speaker, instead of following the tradition of selecting a nationally recognized celebrity. Medical students also have awarded him the Teaching Excellence Award nine times.

Recent graduate Tracy Fong, M.D., praised Donnelly. During one of her final clinical examinations, she froze.

“Dr. Donnelly was my evaluator, and he gently encouraged me to take a step back, clear my head and told me that I was a very capable student and had it within me to do the exam,” Fong said. “With his words lingering in my head, I gained the confidence to not only complete the exam, but to do well on it.”

Donnelly has secured grants to start several innovative programs, including the Healer’s Art course, a five-week class that brings together students with practicing physicians to explore the role of healer. He also implemented the Finding Meaning in Medicine program for third- and fourth-year medical students.

In 2003, Donnelly took a medical leave of absence. When he returned to the Boonshoft School of Medicine, he brought back his story and knowledge regarding the art of medicine.

“Perhaps Dr. Donnelly’s own illness and recovery journey have formed the importance of being a healer to his patients and instilling that same value in his students,” Zink said. “Mentoring the next generation of physicians and healers is important to him.”

He has received many awards, including the American Association of Medical Colleges Humanism in Medicine Recognition (four times) and the Arnold Gold Humanism in Medicine Foundation Award. He was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society in 2002.

While practicing at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, Donnelly received the John P. McGovern Outstanding Clinical Teacher Award three times and from 1989-97 both the Outstanding Teacher in Family Practice Award and the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award.

In addition to serving on many Boonshoft School of Medicine committees, Donnelly volunteers with several church and community groups including the Church of the Holy Angels, St. Vincent De Paul, Reach Out of Montgomery County and Cedarville University. He also is a youth coach, referee and umpire for several Dayton-area programs.

He graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Dallas, Irving, Texas. He earned his M.D. degree at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School and completed his residency training at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School and Memorial Hospital Southwest Memorial Family Practice Residency Program, followed by a clinical teaching fellowship in family medicine at the Family Practice Faculty Development Center, McLennan County Medical Education and Research Foundation in Waco, Texas.

He is board certified in family medicine and is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He and his wife, Kim, reside in Oakwood and have three children, Mary Grace, Erin and James.

The OAFP annually presents the Family Medicine Educator of the Year Award to a family medicine educator who meets and exceeds the criteria of being a capable teacher of family medicine, successful administrator/practitioner, productive researcher/scholar and inspiring leader. Candidates also must have 10 years post-residency (or equivalent) experience, be actively caring for patients and be a member of OAFP.

In 2014, Gary L. LeRoy, M.D., associate dean for student affairs and admissions at the Boonshoft School of Medicine, was honored with the Family Medicine Educator of the Year Award.

Donnelly will receive the Family Medicine Educator of the Year Award at the 2015 OAFP Awards Dinner on Saturday, July 25, 7-10 p.m., at the Marriott Columbus Northwest in Dublin, Ohio.

Registration to attend the dinner is $42 per person; there is no charge for OAFP members. Reservations can be made by calling the OAFP at 800-742-7327.

]]>http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/boonshoft-school-of-medicine-professor-honored-as-family-medicine-educator-of-the-year/feed/0http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/files/2015/07/14366_056-John-Donnelly-2.jpgContinue reading →]]>John C. Duby named professor and chair of pediatrics at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicinehttp://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/john-c-duby-named-professor-and-chair-of-pediatrics-at-the-wright-state-university-boonshoft-school-of-medicine/
http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/john-c-duby-named-professor-and-chair-of-pediatrics-at-the-wright-state-university-boonshoft-school-of-medicine/#commentsWed, 22 Jul 2015 17:19:13 +0000http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/john-c-duby-named-professor-and-chair-of-pediatrics-at-the-wright-state-university-boonshoft-school-of-medicine/Continue reading →]]>

John C. Duby was appointed professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine, effective Oct. 1.

John C. Duby, M.D., has been appointed professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, effective Oct. 1, 2015.

Duby comes to Wright State from the Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) where he served as professor of pediatrics since 2008 and professor of clinical pediatrics from 2000 to 2008. While at NEOMED, he also held several positions at Akron Children’s Hospital in Akron, including director of the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, medical director of Rehabilitative Services and the Family Child Learning Center and director of education at the NeuroDevelopmental Science Center.

For the past decade, Duby has conducted research at the interface between developmental-behavioral pediatrics and primary care, with particular emphasis on the use of quality improvement science to support primary care practices in enhancing care for children with emotional, developmental and behavioral issues.

Since 2012 he has served as medical director for the Building Mental Wellness Learning Collaborative of the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. This quality improvement project is working with 50 primary care practices to enhance the practice culture, clinical skills and integrated care for children and families affected by emotional, developmental and behavioral issues. It is funded with $1.315 million in support from the Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center, the Ohio Department of Health and MEDTAPP (Medicaid Technical Assistance and Policy Program), a university/Medicaid research partnership to support the efficient and effective administration of the Medicaid program.

Before joining the faculty at NEOMED, Duby was a clinical professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Boonshoft School of Medicine from 1990 to 2000. During that time, he also held several positions at Dayton Children’s Hospital, including medical director of Child Development, medical director of Rehabilitative Services and medical director for children at the Stillwater Center in Dayton.

“We look forward to welcoming Dr. Duby back to Wright State,” said Margaret Dunn, M.D., dean of the Boonshoft School of Medicine. “His academic experience, combined with his research into ways to improve care for children with emotional, developmental and behavioral issues, make him the perfect choice to lead our Department of Pediatrics.”

Duby earned his Doctor of Medicine degree at the Ohio State University College of Medicine and completed his residency in pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he also served as chief resident. He completed a fellowship in developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine in Boston.

Wright State psychology professor Tamera Schneider will direct the National Science Foundation’s social psychology program in the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences. (Photo by Erin Pence)

A chance to shape the future of social psychology by directing federal resources will soon be in the hands of Wright State University psychology professor Tamera Schneider, who has been appointed program director at the National Science Foundation.

Schneider will begin her duties Aug. 10 in the Washington, D.C., area as head of the NSF’s social psychology program in the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences.

“Dr. Schneider will be joining the preeminent federal agency for supporting social psychology and will have a remarkable opportunity to influence funding strategies and learn about truly cutting-edge research in that field,” said Robert Fyffe, vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School.

Schneider called her appointment a tremendous honor and responsibility.

“It’s still a little bit surreal to me,” she said. “I’m thrilled about what I can learn and bring back to Wright State.”

The NSF is the U.S. government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all non-medical fields of science and engineering. With an annual budget of about $7 billion, it funds about 20 percent of all federally supported basic research at U.S. colleges and universities.

“I really see the eagle’s eye view, see how important it is to have somebody worrying about the bigger connected issues,” she said. “Connecting what the federal government does is really important with what the education system does.”

Social psychology is the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others. NSF research topics range from emotion, attitudes and persuasion to psychophysiology and neuroscience.

Schneider will be responsible for long-range planning and budget development along with managing the review and approval of research grant proposals. She will communicate the NSF vision of innovation and training the next generation of scholars as well as advise the university community of research opportunities with an eye toward advancing the frontier of social psychology.

“We eagerly anticipate her return to WSU to help advise and guide our faculty, using the experience she will gain in D.C. towards greater success in securing NSF and related grant funding for their work,” said Fyffe.

Schneider will work to support grants that enable social psychologists, engineers and other types of scientists to answer important social questions together.

Schneider will live near the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and commute by subway to the foundation offices in Arlington, Virginia. Her supervisor is the interim division director of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences.

The one-year NSF position is renewable for up to three years. During her time at NSF, Schneider will continue her research at Wright State, returning to the university for about a week each month on average.

“My laboratory is doing some research right now where we are looking at mindfulness meditation and mindset and their effects on academic performance of college students,” she said.

Schneider’s prestigious position will give Wright State a presence in the stratosphere of the NSF and spread the word about the university’s work in social psychology circles at schools around the nation. It will also enable Schneider to master the grant process and share best practices with Wright State researchers.

“One of the things I think would be great is to get more people to submit grant proposals,” she said. “I think there are a lot of people who don’t submit grants who have great ideas.”

Biology professor Don Cipollini, director of Wright State University’s Environmental Sciences Ph.D. Program, announced in October that the beetle had spread to white fringetree. The identities of adult and larval beetles collected from white fringetree were confirmed on the basis of morphology and DNA sequencing.

Now, Cipollini suggests that use of white fringetree by emerald ash borer is likely to be widespread and that the beetle may move to close relatives too.

“It’s certainly the biggest discovery I’ve ever made,” said Cipollini, who has been studying emerald ash borer for 10 years. “It has taken over my life. A lot of people are interested in this. They are calling all the time to see what’s happening.”

Wright State biology professor Don Cipollini suggests use of white fringetree by emerald ash borer is likely to be widespread and that the beetle may move to close relatives. (Photos by Chris Snyder)

White fringetree is native to the United States and grows wild from New Jersey south to Florida and west to Oklahoma and Texas. It is also a growingly popular ornamental tree that has been planted in other parts of the country, including Ohio.

Over the winter, Cipollini and collaborators collected stems of infested white fringetrees in the field and brought them to the laboratory. After completing their development, live adults emerged from several trees.

“Many people have remained skeptical without seeing that, given that I had only found dead adults in these trees previously,” he said. “We’ve now done additional tests with stems of trees that we collected in the field. When you directly place the eggs of the beetle on white fringetree in the laboratory, you get well-developed larvae back out.”

Other questions raised immediately upon announcement of the discovery concerned the fact that white fringetree was occasionally grafted on ash rootstocks in the past.

“None of the trees that I have examined so far show evidence that they were grafted, but we would like to examine grafted material if we can find it,” said Cipollini.

He also looked at the Chinese fringetree, a closely related Asian species.

“It seems to be resistant,” he said. “There is no evidence of infestation in the field, and when you do the tests in the laboratory the larvae do not develop. They attempt to feed, but they just don’t make it longer than a couple days.”

However, some emerald ash borer larvae were able to develop in a native North American tree called devilwood. Larvae were small, but a few survived a 40-day test in the laboratory.

Cipollini has done much of his investigation at Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum in Cincinnati. The site, which is on the National Historic Register, boasts 28 white fringetrees, 11 Chinese fringetrees and devilwood, a Florida-Georgia-Mississippi species that is closely related to white fringetree. Spring Grove holds the Ohio state champion white fringetree, an award given based on tree size and quality.

He also recently traveled to Morton Arboretum in the western suburbs of Chicago, where he found nearly half of its 17 white fringetrees infested with emerald ash borer. This extends earlier observations of attack in southwestern Ohio to a larger geographic area.

Up until now, Cipollini has only examined ornamental plantings of infested trees. But he and his team have now identified and marked wild populations of white fringetree in southern Ohio for monitoring. This will enable them to study the trees before, during and after the invasion wave of ash borers, something that hasn’t been done yet.

He also traveled to the Sand Hills region of central Florida to examine a federally endangered relative called pygmy fringetree, a well-known tree in the region that is held up as a conservation icon.

“I think that species is going to prove to be susceptible as well,” he said. “The stems supported larval development during an initial screen in the lab. Emerald ash borer is not yet in Florida, but it will get there soon enough.”

Don Cipollini has traveled around Ohio and to Chicago and Florida investigating the potential spread of emerald ash borer.

Native to Asia, the emerald ash borer was introduced to the United States near Detroit in 2002. It is believed to have been in ash wood used to stabilize crates during shipping.

So far, the insect has spread in all directions, killed tens of millions of ash trees and threatens to kill most of the 8.7 billion ash trees throughout North America. It is estimated that the borer will have caused $10 billion in economic damage by 2019.

The borers attack trees by laying their eggs on the bark. The serpentine feeding galleries of the larvae inside the bark disrupt the flow of nutrients and water and starve the tree.

Cipollini has been working with colleagues to come up with new strains of ash trees that would be resistant to the insect.

White fringetree, a close relative of ash, is a deciduous shrub or small tree that can grow up to 30 feet tall. It has white flowers and a purple, olive-like fruit. It is known for its relative lack of pest and disease problems and has never been reported as a host to wood borers related to emerald ash borer.

“After observing the condition of nearly 100 ornamental white fringetrees, I now expect that the majority of white fringetrees faced with sufficient pressure from emerald ash borer will get infested to some extent,” Cipollini said. “I’ve seen trees that have been killed by this or had parts of them die. But many trees that can look healthy show evidence that they’ve been attacked for several years, so we still don’t know what’s going to happen in the long run. More work is necessary.”

Like a crime scene investigator conducting an autopsy in his lab, on this day Cipollini fingertips white fringetree stems he pulls from his black backpack. Stems as small as a half-inch in diameter show exit holes from emerald ash borer. Nearby are blue, plastic barrels stuffed with larger fringetree branches scheduled for analysis.

Cipollini recently received a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to continue his research. That research has resulted in a whole host of questions, the answers to which he is hotly pursuing.

Will emerald ash borers feed on the leaves of the fringetrees enough to fully develop to a reproductive stage? What is the role of environmental stress in attack? What percentage of larvae makes it through to adulthood? What about the chemistry of the trees makes them vulnerable to attack? What is it about the Chinese fringetrees that makes them resistant? What other species are at risk?

Cipollini’s next academic paper on emerald ash borer and fringetrees, with student Chad Rigsby as a co-author, is expected to be published soon in Environmental Entomology, a journal of the Entomological Society of America.

“I feel like I’m an emerald ash borer whisperer these days,” Cipollini said. “When I show up, there is suddenly an emerald ash borer problem in the white fringetrees. Short of finding adult exit holes, it can be easy to miss the signs that trees are infested or have been attacked in the past.”

]]>http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/attack-on-white-fringetree-by-emerald-ash-borer-likely-to-be-widespread-says-wright-state-researcher/feed/0http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/files/2015/07/don-cipollini-16015-027-2.jpgContinue reading →]]>Special delivery - Dunbar Library’s Mandy Wilson a major force in the bowling worldhttp://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/special-delivery/
http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/special-delivery/#commentsThu, 16 Jul 2015 13:52:05 +0000http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/special-delivery/Continue reading →]]>It’s no surprise that bowling is in her blood. She grew up across the street from a bowling alley.

What is a surprise is how good Mandy Wilson is. She has bowled perfect 300 games 17 times, was the first woman to bowl a 700 series in Ireland, and in 1991 shook hands with Fidel Castro after winning a silver medal in Havana, Cuba, at the Pan American Games.

When she is not prowling the lanes of a bowling alley she is prowling the lanes next to the bookshelves at Wright State University’s Dunbar Library, where she has worked for 31 years and currently manages the stacks.

“People in the bowling world can’t believe I work in a library because when I bowl I jump around and yell sometimes,” Wilson said. “I’m a different person when I bowl. When I’m competing I’m pretty intense.”

When she’s not managing the stacks in Wright State’s Dunbar Library, Mandy Wilson is knocking down pins as a professional bowler. (Photos by Erin Pence)

Wilson was raised in Springfield, Ohio, the daughter of a truck-driving father and a mother who worked as a secretary. She began bowling competitively when she was 9 years old.

“I grew up right across the street from Shamrock Lanes,” she said. “I could bowl every Saturday morning. During tournaments, you could keep score. That’s how I earned spending money.”

After graduating from Springfield North High School in 1976, Wilson enrolled at Wright State, where she made the Raider softball team as a walk-on and played for four years.

After graduating in 1981 with her bachelor’s degree in education, Wilson set off to teach history and coach basketball. But she quickly realized she didn’t have the temperament for coaching. So over the next few years, she worked on the loading docks of a soft-drink company and then as an assistant manager of an apartment complex.

In 1984, Wright State came back into her life. She got a part-time weekend job at Dunbar Library. That led to a full-time job and then student supervisor, in which she would hire and train students. For the past 10 years, she has been library stacks manager, overseeing a half million books on three floors.

“It involves moving pretty much every book in the building every time they buy new collections, every time they consolidate libraries,” she said.

Major consolidations have included the music library from the Creative Arts Center and the medical books and journals from the Health Science Library.

“I like the order of the library,” she said. “I like the structure, keeping things organized.”

To Wilson, Wright State has meant opportunity.

“The degree I got I may not have used it to be a teacher,” she said, “but it taught me how to be organized, it taught me how to be disciplined.”

Shortly after graduating from Wright State, Wilson began bowling in leagues and competing in tournaments. In 1984, she won a spot in the U.S. Open, the Professional Women’s Bowling Association’s most competitive tournament.

“I bowled really badly. I finished 165th, almost last,” she recalled. “I told myself I would never be this bad again. So I spent the next year learning some stuff, getting some coaching. And the next year I went to the U.S. Open and came in 34th.”

Mandy Wilson, who graduated from Wright State 1981, has worked for the University Libraries for 31 years and currently serves as the library stacks manager, overseeing a half million books on three floors in Dunbar Library.

Wilson bowled her first 300 game on a Friday night in 1984 at Poelking Lanes on Wilmington Pike in Dayton.

“I was with some of my friends; we were just having a good time,” she recalled. “It was the 10th frame before I knew it. I didn’t even really think about it. But when I did it, everybody was jumping up and down and screaming.”

Wilson’s most recent 300 game came in March at the National Golden Ladies Classic in Las Vegas. She recently finished fourth out of a field of about 60 in the highly competitive Senior Queens bowling tournament in Wisconsin.

Wilson, who serves as adviser to Wright State’s bowling club team, currently averages 211. On a good day, she can beat anybody. Her opponents often fall victim to her Rising Star, a black ball with bronze marbling.

Wilson hopes to join the women’s professional bowling tour when she retires even though she has had a couple of knee surgeries she attributes to bowling and her softball-playing days.

In the meantime, her dance card is pretty full.

“I either put books away or I throw a bowling ball,” she said. “I don’t have much time for anything else.”

]]>http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/special-delivery/feed/0http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/files/2015/07/mandy-wilson-15947_008-2.jpgContinue reading →]]>Lake dweller - New dean Jay Albayyari sees bright future for Wright State’s Lake Campushttp://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/lake-dweller/
http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/lake-dweller/#commentsMon, 06 Jul 2015 13:00:53 +0000http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/dialogue/2015/07/lake-dweller/Continue reading →]]>When he first reported for work at Wright State University’s Lake Campus, Jay Albayyari’s first order of business was to meet the faculty and staff — individually.

So he walked around, introduced himself and spent up to an hour with each one — all 100.

“That was the best investment,” said the new Lake Campus dean, who prides himself on connecting with people. “What’s special about this campus is how passionate the faculty and the staff and the community are about the campus. This is one place where I don’t have to worry about people leaving and taking other positions.”

The 48-year-old Albayyari brings an engineering background and a colorful career to the job. He has three engineering degrees from the University of Cincinnati, has worked on the Star Wars missile defense program and has sent an experiment up on the Space Shuttle.

Jay Albayyari, the new dean of Wright State’s Lake Campus, sought the job because he wanted to lead a college campus with a lot of potential and help it prosper. (Photos by Will Jones)

He says he sought the Wright State job because he wanted to lead a college campus with a lot of potential and help it prosper. He and his family live in a condo two miles from the Lake Campus, where he’s been working since April 1 before officially taking the job July 1.

In the next five years, Albayyari hopes to double or even triple enrollment at the Lake Campus from its current 1,147 students. He also wants to further develop the campus’ technical programs, help raise money to build an advanced-manufacturing center, create a water quality institute, build a new athletics facility and offer noncredit, professional-development classes for workers at nearby companies.

“There is a lot of exciting stuff going on. We have a lot of new initiatives,” he said. “It’s an outstanding opportunity for us to grow this campus. The future is very bright.”

Albayyari was born and raised in Doha, Qatar, an oil-rich Persian Gulf nation that borders Saudi Arabia. His father was general manager of a large car dealership there.

After graduating high school in 1984, Albayyari moved to Cincinnati, where one of his cousins was living. He began studying mechanical engineering at the University of Cincinnati and got a co-op job with Eastman Kodak in Dayton.

Jay Albayyari’s plans for the Lake Campus include increasing enrollment, developing its technical programs, raising funds for an advanced-manufacturing center and creating a water quality institute.

After obtaining both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering, he landed a job with Hughes Aircraft Co. Missile Systems Group in Tucson, Arizona, where he worked on the Star Wars program and the AMRAAM air-to-air missile program.

Albayyari later returned to the University of Cincinnati, where he got a $200,000 NASA grant to work with Boeing Aerospace and NASA Lewis Research Center to investigate cryogenic fuel behavior in zero gravity. He helped create an experiment that was taken aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1996.

“It was the highlight of my career,” he said.

After getting his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, Albayyari began teaching manufacturing engineering at Northern Kentucky University. Then he went on to Eastern Michigan University, where he taught mechanical engineering. After that, it was Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he chaired the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, became associate dean and then associate vice chancellor for research.

Abayyari knew all along he wanted to be in administration.

“I like the management aspect,” he said. “I think I communicate well with folks. They know that I care. I consider myself a good motivator and want to make sure people excel and reach their goals.”

But Albayyari’s winning personality, ability to communicate and leadership qualities faced a challenge when he arrived in America. The change in culture and nuances of the English language made it difficult for him to fully express himself.

Especially tricky was humor, which Albayyari had used successfully in Qatar to connect with people. He would watch and study late-night talk show comedians Johnny Carson and David Letterman to try to understand American humor and what was considered funny.

Prior to joining Wright State, Jay Albayyari worked on the Star Wars missile defense program, sent an experiment up on the Space Shuttle and taught engineering at several universities in neighboring states.

“You have all of this personality and ability to communicate and be funny and to connect with people, but you can’t get it out,” he said. “It continues to be a challenge, but I think I broke through.”

After coming to America, Albayyari’s love for soccer morphed into a passion for football. He is a diehard Cincinnati Bengals fan and loves NASCAR, especially Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“I’m a sports fanatic. I watch all kinds of sports,” he said. “That relaxes me.”

The Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who have dedicated themselves to the cause of theatre arts in Dayton or have made a significant impact on Dayton’s theatre community. The 2015 inductee is Joe Deer.

Joe Deer is Distinguished Professor of Musical Theatre and Director of the Musical Theatre Initiative at Wright State University, where he has headed the Musical Theatre program since its inception in 1997. He is well known as a director for Wright State and the Human Race, and his productions have been acclaimed for their quality and creativity.

Dan Krane, biology professor and president of the faculty at Wright State, served an American Council on Education Fellowship at Notre Dame. He is pictured with Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins.

His fellowship at the University of Notre Dame produced leadership training in budgeting, strategic planning and fundraising. But for Wright State University biology professor Dan Krane, there was something he didn’t see coming.

“I frankly marvel at the change I see in myself,” Krane said. “I expected to grow intellectually. And I thought that I might grow spiritually a little bit because of the nature of the institution. But I grew a lot more spiritually than I anticipated. I like the change. There’s a calmness that I have.”

Krane, president of the faculty and chair of the Ohio Faculty Council, is back home at Wright State after spending nearly a year at Notre Dame as an ACE Fellow of the American Council on Education, a prestigious honor designed to prepare emerging leaders for senior positions in college and university administration.

While Krane was at Notre Dame, Wright State hosted an ACE Fellow from Northern Illinois University — David Stone, associate vice president for research.

Stone said Wright State President David R. Hopkins afforded him extraordinary access to his office and his work.

“By far the central highlight was the time I spent shadowing Dr. Hopkins and discussing with him various aspects of leadership and decision-making in higher education,” said Stone, who returned to Northern Illinois in May.

David Stone, associate vice president for research at Northern Illinois University, was an American Council on Education Fellow at Wright State.

ACE is the major coordinating body for all the nation’s higher education institutions, representing more than 1,600 college and university presidents.

Nearly 2,000 higher education leaders have participated in the ACE Fellows Program since its inception, with more than 300 Fellows having served as chief executive officers of colleges or universities and more than 1,300 having served as provosts, vice presidents and deans.

Krane and Stone were among 28 ACE Fellows who did their fellowships at universities around the nation this year. The Fellows also took part in several multiple-day retreats — in Atlanta, San Diego, Chicago and Washington, D.C. — where they studied university budgeting, strategic planning and diversity.

Krane also visited the University of California-San Diego, San Diego State, Indiana University-East in Richmond, Georgetown, DePaul, Loyola, Northeastern Illinois and most of the public universities in Ohio.

At Notre Dame, Krane lived in a campus apartment — next to that of President John Jenkins — and would attend the daily 6:45 a.m. Masses at the Crypt of Sacred Heart Basilica.

“I thought that was an important part of the Notre Dame experience,” Krane said, adding that he also regularly attended campus sporting events.

“What makes Notre Dame special is that their students and ultimately their alumni have a phenomenal, unrivaled loyalty and devotion to the institution,” he said. “There is nothing else like it anywhere.”

Krane says Notre Dame’s “secret sauce” is assigning freshman students to a specific residence hall, where they remain for their entire college careers.

“There is a real sense of community, and each residence hall has its own distinctive character,” he said. “Each hall has a rector who serves as a father figure. And the rectors know every last student by name.”

There is no corporate advertising on campus. Instead, Notre Dame advertises itself, putting brand before revenue and building loyalty.

“Maybe one thing Wright State can learn from Notre Dame is to pat itself on the back a little more,” Krane said.

While he was there, Krane helped Notre Dame explore the possibility of starting a research institute, modeling it after the Wright State Research Institute.

Krane graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from John Carroll University in 1985 and obtained a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Penn State in 1990. He did postdoctoral research at Washington University and Harvard before accepting a faculty appointment in 1993 at Wright State.

Stone attended Boston University, where he obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees looking at the intersection of law and psychiatry that included a year at Harvard Law School. He then obtained his Ph.D. looking at technology through the lens of seven disciplines. His dissertation explored the philosophical limits of expert systems technologies and artificial intelligence, for which he received the best dissertation award.

Working at Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health and at Tufts University School of Medicine, Stone developed expertise in youth violence prevention, alternative medicine and public health. He also founded and directed a research center in Europe that focused on the needs of the Balkan countries after the wars there ended.

“But my real field of study turned out to be how scientific disciplines actually work to create knowledge and how limiting an objectifying approach to knowledge creation turns out to be,” he said.

At Wright State, Stone participated in meetings of the Ohio Inter-University Council and the Ohio Faculty Council and spent time working with leadership and staff in finance, planning and emergency management. He lived in Laurel Hall with freshmen students.

“This gave me wonderful perspective on the effects that housing and dining policies have on the students, and it reminded me what freshman year was like,” he said. “I have to say the Wright State students were much more well-behaved than I remember my BU classmates and I being.”

Stone took the leadership lessons back to Northern Illinois, where he will work on initiatives in enterprise risk management and capital planning.

Krane said he is eager to put some of the insights of his experience at Notre Dame to work at Wright State.

“I want to take a turn at bat,” he said. “I’ve done the training, I’ve done the exercises, the conditioning. I think I can make good contact with the ball.”

Jim Gruenberg, deputy director of Wright State’s National Center for Medical Readiness at Calamityville, says disaster historians can help communities prepare for and respond to emergencies. (Photos by Erin Pence)

Communities often do an inadequate, cookie-cutter job of preparing themselves for disasters and should use disaster historians, whose historical knowledge of earthquakes, hurricanes and epidemics could help guide relief efforts.

Gruenberg says post-disaster needs can be predicted by studying previous similar disasters and viewing the impact through the lens of economic, political and social conditions. For example, he says the study of the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010 shows that the victims of the recent earthquakes in Nepal can likely expect an outbreak of cholera soon.

Gruenberg got his master’s degree in history and did his thesis on the outbreak of yellow fever in Savannah, Ga., in 1876. The frightening viral disease, which causes hemorrhagic illness and sudden death, left more than 1,000 people dead and prompted more than 5,000 of the city’s 28,000 residents to evacuate.

“The idea was to take that as an example of how you can exploit historical data and use that data for current decision-making,” he said.

Through his research, Gruenberg learned that the military has done a better job at predicting the outcome of battles by looking at secondary information collected from previous battles. He then applied that to the disaster world.

Gruenberg said people tend to make the mistake of comparing disasters by only looking at the physical devastation. He has instead developed the “four quadrants of threat,” examining the physical, economic, political and social conditions.

For example, the earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal left similar physical damage and occurred in countries with similar economies, political structures and social conditions. So what happened in Haiti — one of the worst cholera outbreaks in the world — is likely to happen in Nepal, he said.

“If you do your homework,” Gruenberg said, “you can predict you are going to have all of these internally displaced persons in Nepal who are going to be living in makeshift shelters and makeshift camps where you have no purified water, no sanitary food handling. You can predict cholera will be following and get those resources in place faster instead of waiting to react.”

Jim Gruenberg, who teaches in the Department of Kinesiology and Health and for Wright State’s National Disaster Health Consortium, studies disasters throughout history through an exhaustive review of published articles and academic case studies.

The recent earthquakes in Nepal have killed more than 8,500 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

The Haiti earthquake destroyed nearly 300,000 homes and buildings, affected 3 million people and left as many as 160,000 dead. The cholera outbreak that followed has killed more than 8,000 Haitians.

Gruenberg says communities tend to prepare for disasters in a superficial way, not tapping into important information that would give a clearer picture of the impact.

For example, communities should know their demographics, whether they have a lot of poor residents who would immediately need food and shelter, or elderly residents who would immediately need medical care, or young people who would need access to schools. And they should look at the impact of disasters on communities with similar demographics.

“I think we can do a better job as communities to prepare,” he said.

Gruenberg’s studies revealed that unlike military historians, there is really no such thing as disaster historians. But he says there should be.

Disaster historians could be deployed to places hit by hurricanes, earthquakes, epidemics and other disasters to help support and shape the relief effort.

Jonathan Winkler, associate professor of history and an award-winning author, said that while historians can’t predict the future, they can help people make better decisions.

“Jim’s work shows us how those who will cope with disasters and who study the past better can save more lives faster,” said Winkler. “His exploration of disaster history is one of those excellent places where collaborative work between different parts of our university can lead to exciting new opportunities that will benefit the community at large.”

Gruenberg says emergency management currently rests on the shoulders of a very few people, who know how to go through the checklist of getting a community prepared but are woefully understaffed.

“As a result, community planners may out of necessity default to more superficial evaluations of only the physical conditions of their community,” he said. “A disaster historian who could focus and mine that data for them would be a huge advantage.”